romance
noun · verb · adjective
Simple meaning
A relationship between two lovers.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
rohmansSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ɹoʊˈmæns
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
A relationship between two lovers
An intimate relationship between two people; a love affair.
A story, novel, film, etc., centred around an idealized love relationship.
A literary or filmic genre about idealized love.
A story relating to chivalry; a story involving knights, heroes, adventures, quests, etc.
Idealized love which is pure or beautiful.
verb
Tell romantic or exaggerated lies
“This author romanced his trip to an exotic country.”
intransitive
To write or tell romantic stories, poetry, letters, etc.
intransitive
To talk extravagantly and imaginatively; to build castles in the air.
transitive
To woo; to court.
adjective
Of or dealing with languages or cultures derived from Roman influence and Latin: French, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Galician, Romanian, Catalan, Occitan, etc.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- A2 · Elementary (estimated)
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- General English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A relationship between two lovers
Used this way, romance is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It turns up most in relationships contexts.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Where it naturally appears
- Relationships
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Relationship / intimate
Other combinations
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Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
The group of languages derived from Latin.
A romance that deals with desolate and mysterious and grotesque events.
A writer of Gothic romances.
Romance dialects spoken in parts of southeastern Switzerland and northern Italy and the Tyrol.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: relationship between two lovers
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.